By Bob Koep
It is beginning to get frightening.
For the 6th time Argentina picked up the Under-20 World Cup with a 2-1 victory over the Czech Republic at Toronto’d National Soccer Stadium.
Now is there only one consistent system in this world? Or are the Argentines better at producing one excellent group of youngsters after another?
As a rule a youngster only has one crack at the can, sometimes two, in the under 20 bracket, before he moves on to senior ranks. So coaches have to search near and far all the time to find new talent for this bi-annual tournament. And Argentine coach Hugo Tocalli said he regretted very much having to leave a number of great players behind as he is only allowed a roster of 21.
Well, here they were, a perfectly blended team, goal, defence, midfield, attack that was a puzzle to most opponents in the tournament. But in the final they almost had their come uppance.
The Czechs played a scrappy game throughout and their well organized defence kept the Argentines at bay. And then, after 60 minutes, their offence clicked as well when Martin Fenin blasted a shot behind Sergio Romero in the Argentine goal to take the lead.
That should have done the trick as the two had earlier played to a 0-0 tie in Group action and the Czechs are very stingy in defence. But maybe it was a mistake to arouse the anger of the South Americans.
In no time flat they shook off this shock, exploited a temporary lull in the Czech lines and Sergio Aguero found himself alone in front of the goal and pulled the trigger for the equalizer just a minute later.
They say the moments after an important goal has been scored are the most vulnerable and the Czechs proved this again as they were somewhat asleep and seemed still to be celebrating. But in the end, the Argentines had enough to cart home the title as Mauro Zarate rolled a rather harmless ball into the net for the winner just a few minutes from time.
Aguero, 19, probably the finest player in the loop and already a pro with Atletico Madrid, picked up the golden boot for his leading six goals and he also was voted the top player in the 23-day, 52 game tournament.
In the earlier consolation game on the same field, Chile worked out a 1-0 win over Austria to pick up third place.
In all, there were 12 games played at the Toronto Stadium and it seems a bit odd, that each and everyone was reported to have an attendance of exactly 19,526.
Now that is rather improbable especially as the VIP boxes were sometimes near empty and sometimes full. These people don’t pay admission, so were they counted or not? Especially the third place game had thousands of empty seats but was supposed to be a full house.
But how can you argue with statistics. They are there for all to see and let’s leave it at that.
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